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Friday 26 November 2010

Why I play WoW

It's been a month and a bit since I started playing WoW and I have asked myself why I play.

No doubt that in the beginning the reason I started playing was because of my husband and the feeling that I needed a new hobby. I clicked with the game straight away. It's so accessible and can be played individually or socially, it can be taken to any level and extreme...from just being happy questing to revising tactics for a raid. It can be played religiously, taking over lives, filling holes in lives or played once a week or less. It can be a laugh, a place to escape or it can feel like work. Why do you play wow?

I've always had a competitive nature and I find most of the time when I've been playing has been about wanting to impress my husband. I want him to turn around and say that I'm good - from never having played a game like this, never touching an Xbox or PlayStation - I've got the hang of the game. Now as I progress through the levels, I feel like I have proven that I can play...but now I want to play efficiently. Is any one way better than another? It's my aim that I be the best way I can. I feel good if no-one dies in a dungeon run, I feel empowered that I can keep them alive or let them die - and that is what makes me want to log in everyday. The thrill and rush when the game goes well, when I perform well. Maybe I'm addicted to WoW or maybe I lead a sad life...I don't think so, I have priorities and WoW isn't near the top of the list, so what's the pull? The answer for me is simple. It's fun!

So why do I play wow? I enjoy it, I can escape into Azeroth and not think about the real world for an hour...I can fight against evil and work with friends to accomplish tasks, I can make playing the game a skill that has to be studied and adapted when necessary. I can laugh, and feel frustrated and work hard to attain something. I can fuel my need for competition, I can wonder as to how an online game has captured so much of my imagination and time, I can question myself as to why I didn't play wow sooner than I did and I can enjoy the fact that everyday I become a little more nerdier!

"we do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing."

Bilgewater Cartel Rocketway

I went on a mission last night to find the Rocketway just outside Orgrimmar. I hadn't heard about it until I was reading a blog post from Lady Erinia. She recommended that players should "do it in first person! It’s a like a roller coaster and fully awesome." So I did what she suggested...





and it was awesome! I must have spent a good 20 minutes just zipping back and forth, although I find it strange that you don't get dropped off at the station, but somewhere nearby rather randomly, it's either a quirk or a bug - I'm not sure which, but either way, it's a really cool addition to the game.


I'm going to go back to it later to get the 'Joy Ride' achievement!

Thursday 25 November 2010

Bye-bye old world, hello 'The Shattering'

The 4.0.3a patch that has brought 'The Shattering' to Azeroth happened yesterday on the European servers. For a few days prior to 4.0.3a people were talking about saying good bye to Azeroth and how, after spending many years in the game - highlights and low points, they would miss it. I found it difficult to be moved in any way, for me the world was brand new as it was and although I've seen a lot of the zones in the month its taken me to get to level 73, they were just areas, just places to quest for the ultimate goal which was to level up. Perhaps I didn't take in the world that surrounded me.

Last night however, I logged in, with great anticipation and excitement. The new log in screen, loading screen, and music all helped build my anticipation of what was coming, and as the new world loaded, I was not disappointed.




It looks amazing, with so much attention to detail. Orgrimmar is simply mind blowing. I spent the whole of my time in the game last night just going from place to place to take in the new changes. Brill just outside Undercity has also had a major make over and I couldn't believe Thousand Needles and what is left of the great lift. One change that caught my eye was in Stanglethorn Vale, little swinging signposts directed me to Hardwrench Hideaway, a new Horde area with fairy lights strung against the backdrop of the sea and a barbeque on the go!



There are still lots of places left to explore, and one thing I was looking forward to was the arrival of the new companion pet the Singling Sunflower. I've spent many hours completing the Plants vs. Zombies game on my iPhone and so heading to Hillsbrad seemed very appealing. After completing the quest 'Peacebloom vs. Ghouls' I finally got my sunflower pet:



and yet, despite loving all the new changes and thinking they are all definitely for the better, when I watched this video for the second time (the first after the Shattering) I did have a tear in my eye, because I suddenly realised that the places I had obtained certain achievements that I'm proud of, and have spent hours questing in, will never, ever look the same again.


Sunday 21 November 2010

The Phantom Council

The 'Phantom Council' is a brand new EU-Blade's Edge Guild created yesterday by my husband and I.

Why was it created? 


Well, since starting to play the game I've been in two different guilds, both of which were deathly silent despite having lots of members online. One of the guilds I joined, I did so because it was big and thought that chat would be social, but despite 96 members being online...still no-one talked, or replied.

Ian my husband, has had a lot of experience with guilds, being an ex-officer of a guild which is still one of the best today, and we thought between us, we could do better than what I have experienced so far in-game.

Our guild is built on the foundations of community, we want our members to feel involved and needed and we plan...with lots of hard work and dedication to eventually become a raiding guild in Cataclysm.

We've tentatively made live our new guild website, but it still needs some tweaking, before we are entirely happy with it. Check us out here: Phantom Council

Friday 19 November 2010

Ding...Level 70 :)

Well, its been just over a month since I started playing my Priestess and last night I dinged 70. (with 150 hours of playtime in the game) I feel like its taken no time at all, and I'm already feeling powerful! I'm not looking at 80 as being the level cap, I'm thinking of it as 85 because I know that realistically there is no way that I'll reach 80 before Cataclysm is released...and part of me doesn't want to try and make that push because I feel like I've levelled so quickly the world has gone by in a blur, and I would like to sit back and just enjoy the ride to the level cap before all the end game fun starts.



I headed to Northrend at 68, and I must say a 'thank you' to those of you on Twitter who confirmed that since patch 4.0.1 Cold Weather Flying is available at 68 for first time people. I think I would have struggled to enjoy northrend without the ability to fly after only learning it a few levels before and feeling the freedom that comes with it.

I was so excited to reach Dalaran...it was as if that had been my aim in the game so far. I remember watching my husband run round dalaran on his level 80 even before I started playing the game, and I remember thinking it looked so amazing...and I finally did it...think I must have spent an hour or more just exploring the city and the shops...my favourite being the toy shop!





I also did my first Northrend dungeon - Utgarde Keep (twice) I died on 3 occasions once when I got thrown into another mob in the Dragonflayer Pens which was just too much to handle all at once. Another when mines were exploding but the group wasn't moving away and I died trying to heal them and the third time was when an ice tomb got the tank in Reaver's Hall and none of the dps made any attempt to break the tomb, I got the aggro and died within seconds...but we got through it and i enjoyed it overall. On both occasions no nice cloth loot dropped but the rewards for the quests were all significant upgrades.

Was there a real point to this blog post? No. I'm just so excited to reach Northrend and 70 that I just had to share!

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Weekend Round-Up

It's been another busy weekend in game for my Undead Priestess, really feel like I'm flying at the moment and making good in-game progress...I also dinged 68 last night so next time I log in I'll be heading to Northrend! :)

I had a couple of 'funky' quests this weekend, most notably being turned into a crate:



and controlling a mini Fel Reaver (which definitely helped me on my phobia of the big one)






I also got the achievement 'Tripping the Rifts' and even though I've got the achievement now, I still find enjoyment in killing the elementals popping up - although that is mostly because the quest giver I'm trying to find is usually fighting in the middle of it all.



I'm disappointed that I'm not high enough level to take part in the city invasions but I was in Orgrimmar when an invasion started and I followed everyone around and chucked out a few heals now and then.. What shocked me the most was the sheer amount of players in the city and I literally couldn't see for all the players moving around:







and so, I think this weekend was probably one of the most fun for me, and I'm looking forward to moving on to Northrend as soon as possible. 

I can't however, leave this post without my favourite screenshot of the weekend. Nuad and I happened to be in Shattrath City in the World's End Tavern when the Tauren Chieftains were gigging, so treating it like a true gig I got suitably drunk (which is why my photo is blurry) and rocked out:


Friday 12 November 2010

Red Shirt Guy

Ok, so we all know about Red Shirt Guy at Blizzcon and (for the minority of you who read this blog and don't play WoW - I'll explain later) I simply love the new autotune video doing the rounds on youtube, and I have actually watched it at least three times now!

So here it is, once again...




Now for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about well....

Every year there is a massive conference in America about the games that Blizzard makes, called Blizzcon. One of those games is World of Warcraft and during the conference they have a question and answer session with the designers of WoW where people can ask questions.

This guy (aka Red Shirt Guy) asked a question about a character called Falstad Wildhammer. In the recent WoW book The Shattering, this character was on the Council of Three Hammers but the designers had accidentally missed the character out when making the new Cataclysm game that is due out very soon (eek excited muchly!) and this random guy wearing a red shirt, discovered the discrepancy and pointed it out at the conference. One of the designers of the game replied that Falstad was dead, but once again red shirt guy corrected the designer as the character is still alive.

So Blizzard corrected the problem in the game and in addition, as homage to the red shirt guy, they have in fact created a new character for the game called the 'Wildhammer Fact Checker' who wears a red shirt:




Here is the original question he asked:




simply awesome, that is all.   :)

"What a strange power there is in clothing"

"What a strange power there is in clothing," said Isaac Bashevis Singer, but in my new robe I know exactly what power lies within it and it's:


242 Armour
+36 Stamina
+21 Intellect
+18 Spirit


thanks to a red, blue and yellow gem it also contains:


+6 Intellect
+12 Haste rating
+16 Spirit


and +6 Stamina as a Socket Bonus.


It is by far the best item of clothing I have got so far in WoW and it dropped from a boss (Keli'dan the Breaker) in the Blood Furnace dungeon. In fact all the good stuff that dropped was Cloth and with no other Cloth classes in the group...it was perfect for me! 


It's called the Raiments of Divine Authority and I think it's simply divine...



Monday 8 November 2010

Weekend Round-Up

Well, another weekend has been and gone in the land of WoW and some interesting things occurred over the weekend:

I made it to Outland which I'm really thrilled about but then discovered my hatred for the Fel Reaver, try as I might to think of him as a big bunny rabbit...I just cant.  He makes me freeze whenever I see him and I think its because he looks like a robot, I hate robots in real life and so I think I have discovered another phobia...now along with being scared of elevators, I'm now also scared of robots!


I get shivers just looking at the photo, so after arriving in Outland at level 58, it was my mission to quickly get to 60 so I could (a) getting a flying mount and fly above his head and (b) move away from Hellfire Peninsula - the home of the Fel Reaver. My husband thinks it's funny to tell me that the Fel Reaver is "a really nice guy when you get to know him" My husband doesn't get it. Its not funny. It won't ever be funny. I shall be laughing though,  when I come back and kill him for fun when I'm at the level cap. I'm absolutely looking forward to that day and it may be one of the first things I do!

So after a couple of hours in hellfire - if that, this happened:


and then this happened:


and so I then mounted up and have flown away from hellfire (for good - until 80/85)


I'm loving Zangarmarsh it's definitely my favourite zone so far.

I also decided it would be fun to get the Going Down Achievement. This was quite difficult for me as I don't actually know how far 65 yards is. Metres I could do! It took a few attempts dismounting whilst flying in Zangarmarsh but eventually I made it...and I didn't die in the process either...woohoo!


I also managed to get a few other achievements such as exalted with Undercity and some exploration achievements:


All in all it was a really productive weekend and now the push to 70 has begun! 

All that's left is my favourite screenshot of the weekend, which was taken in Dalson's Tears in the Western Plaguelands:




Wednesday 3 November 2010

"The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope"

I decided that since I am making progress in my other professions - I have 275 in Alchemy, 200 in Herbalism, 295 in Cooking and 293 in First Aid - I had better make a start on Fishing.

I have to say, the idea of spending time fishing is about the same as the idea that sicking needles in my eyes would be fun...and fishing in game didn't appeal any more than that either, but I got a fishing rod as quest reward and decided to spend an hour fishing and see how it went. I am also motivated to fish by the fact that I need certain fish for alchemy and I don't fancy getting ripped off, by buying it from the auction house.

Since I was in Orgrimmar I decided to head to Sen'jin Village and see what I could catch...and it took very little time to get:



followed by:


and then the Journeyman achievement:


I then decided to stay fishing inside Orgrimmar as I had discovered I could get the Old Crafty achievement if I caught him and suddenly the fishing had a purpose, each time I reeled in a fish that wasn't old crafty I sent the line out again...I realise this is how real fishermen must feel when they are trying to catch a particular fish.

Before long I had caught 100 fish:


and achieved the Expert Fisherman achievement:


but still no Old Crafty so called it an afternoon with 151 in fishing, so my verdict on fishing...well, I actually found it quite therapeutic and certainly when I don't have questing to do I shall be getting out my fishing rod and waiting for the elusive Old Crafty...it has become a mission and obsession of mine to catch him...but as to whether I will bother with Old Ironjaw...maybe when I'm level 80 and feeling brave!



“When it is dark enough, you can see the stars"

The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder and Halloween has been and gone and so it feels winter is really closing in now and this can only mean one thing...more WoW time!

Its been a busy week for my Priestess she dinged 50...yay! Hoping to get to Outland by the end of the week (optimistic) considering that its my Husband's birthday tomorrow and we're off to see Lord of the Dance and probably wont get very much WoW time this coming weekend, however, I also feel its been a slow week and not much interesting has happened, apart from last nights very long dungeon run which I'll explain later.

Here is the round-up and highlights of my week:



Well, its been dribs and drabs this week and in order to ding 50 we did quite a bit of questing...which is rather boring at the moment in the Un'Goro Crater, we are planning on moving to Felwood when we next play.

After the excitement of the Halloween world event I was looking forward to the Day of the Dead event and I was hugely disappointed, I thought it was a bit of an anti-climax and didn't see the point at all to be honest, although the companion pet (the Macabre Marionette) is probably the cutest thing I've seen apart from the baby murlocs.


I also got the Dead Man's Party achievement by dancing with an NPC called Catrina (this is slightly amusing as my real younger sister is called Katrina)


I also managed to get a couple of achievements that I couldn't get until I dinged 50 and these included Master in First Aid and Professional Master for my Alchemy. I also achieved Short Order Cook:







I've also been doing as many dungeon runs as possible as I feel that I get to really play my class in a dungeon. I love using the different healing spells and keeping people alive and when I'm just soloing or playing with Nuad there isn't much call for heals. I may stick Renew on him now and then and Binding Heal on us if we get really hit but otherwise I'm mostly attempting to deal damage but playing with a warrior has meant that by the time I have cast Smite - it's already dead so I find much enjoyment in casting Shadow Word: Death to finish them off and generally jumping around and dancing...oh and hopping! I've discovered that my priestess can hop...the undead warrior cannot hop much to the annoyance of my husband...I wonder if she can skip? Anyway, getting back to the point...I did Blackrock Depths for the first time...(eek)

I can say without a doubt that it is the longest dungeon I've done so far and the hardest. I was busy throughout the entire instance so had no time to take screenshots. It was going really well until we got to the Grim Guzzler...Nuad the Tank (aka my husband) began to buy the beer to give to one of the characters which gets him drunk and then he opens the door - no one had the key, when someone in the group took it upon himself to start killing the patrons which resulted in a wipe. Fortunately we all decided to continue so we ran back to the instance as ghosts and resurrected - but now the patrons in the bar were all hostile. Credit to the tank he pulled pretty much one at a time and everyone survived...except me! My second death in that dungeon, but I recently put a talent into Spirit of Redemption and desperately healed for 15 seconds and everyone survived.../cheer, and fortunately the druid resurrected me...the rest of the dungeon seemed to take forever and I did some more desperate healing but we got through it and I got new shoulders (Boreal Mantle) for my efforts!


P.S - I'm never doing that dungeon again!

So finally, its time to choose my favourite screenshot of the week and it was a tough decision between the shot of dinging 50 or this one...here is a shot of my husband and I, taking a nap like only the undead can!